There's A Fungus Among Us Soybeans

Asian rust is found in Chesapeake and Suffolk. But it's too near harvest season to affect yields.

A fungus that can destroy soybean crops if it gets to them early enough in the growing season was found recently on plants in Chesapeake and Suffolk.

Luckily, it's too near harvest for Asian soybean rust to have any effect on yields, said David Holshouser, a soybean specialist with Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Suffolk. There's always the chance that winds will carry it back next year, and Holshouser's crew will be out looking for it again, starting in the spring.

There are 10 "sentinel fields" around the state tested periodically for the fungus.

One of them, in Suffolk, was where two leaves out of 100 tested showed signs of rust.

Farmers' fields also are tested. In a Chesapeake field Thursday, almost-microscopic lesions were found on seven of 100 leaves tested.